Personalized Medicine: The Future is Now

by Dr. Bertalan Meskó on September 30, 2007

During the Researchers’ Night, I gave a slideshow about personalized medicine which I’ll publish here soon. I try to use more and more tools to be able to screen the whole web for personalized medicine-related articles. So here are the most important news and announcements.

Personalized medicine based on genomics is a good thing when the patient/consumer is fully informed in advance of the implications for their own lives. Safeguards must be in place to prevent discrimination by any party based on this information.

Whatever your feelings about the drug industry, anything that might spare patients from severe drug side effects represents a step forward — not just for those who can avoid dangerous health complications, but also for the people who might be put at risk when a drug that could help them is withdrawn for safety problems that are unlikely to affect them.

It’s extremely encouraging to see that the government is aware of the needs and demands of the genome revolution. But, I wonder how much communication there is between the various government organizations and the degree of overlap between goals. Then there is the question of collaboration between the private sector and the government.

The International Serious Adverse Events Consortium (SAEC) officially announced its formation this morning. The new global, non-profit partnership between leading pharmaceutical companies, pharmacogeneticsthe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and academic institutions plans to identify and validate genetic markers that may help predict which individuals are at risk for serious adverse drug events.

The recent paper, “Genetic Markers of Suicidal Ideation Emerging During Citalopram Treatment of Major Depression” finds that among 68 candidate genes, markers for 2 AMPA-type glutamate receptors show significant association in 120 individuals who experienced suicidal ideation in a large medication trial for major depressive disorder.